[Download] "Irish Antigones: Towards Tragedy Without Borders?(Critical Essay)" by Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

July 17, 2021

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Title: Irish Antigones: Towards Tragedy Without Borders?(Critical Essay)
Author : Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies
Release Date : January 22, 2008
Genre: Reference,Books,
Pages : * pages
Size : 371 KB

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At the heart of Sophocles's Antigone lies the moral dilemma of what to obey when it comes to the crunch: one's conscience, or the law. (1) Accordingly, contemporary versions have tended to emerge within restless political climates where such concerns are not idle speculation, where artists, in the first place, are compelled by that 'writerly urge', (2) and where the play's relevance is in turn instinctively felt by its audience. Such conditions bring out the best in all Greek tragedy, and this is precisely why the latest spate of Greek adaptations in Ireland, notably of Antigone, appears so incongruous at first glance; they are produced in an Irish political climate that has become resolutely sedate, even self-satisfied. We have come a long way since the last flurry of Antigones in 1984: the long-standing economic depression has given way to the bountiful, if currently less bounding, 'Celtic Tiger'; the 'liberal agenda' has been largely triumphant, and continues to make gains with minimum fuss; and the legacies of partition--in so much as they ever were--are less and less to the forefront of the southern consciousness. Not that the entire country is enchanted with the prevailing situation, but, as Seamus Heaney has pointed out, Greek tragedy works best when it deals with something 'deeply at stake' for every individual in a society. (3) These days, beyond a desire for a deus ex machina to descend upon our A & E departments, there seems little that Irish society might be so bothered about. Reflecting this domestic stagnancy, then, is the fact that the most recent Irish versions of Greek tragedy have resonated with international rather than national politics. Coming from Irish playwrights Seamus Heaney and Conall Morrison, this is a new and unprecedented development that begs many questions. Why now? Why only now? Why Greek tragedy? Why Antigone? Is this simply a phase that Irish theatre is going through, or have we in fact reached a point--as I contend--where such internationalism is likely to become an enduring feature of Irish theatre?